Gov. Hochul beat Republican Bruce Blakeman Tuesday to win reelection for a second full term as governor as New York Democrats turned out in droves in a blue wave driven by President Trump’s deep unpopularity.
Hochul led Blakeman by a landslide with the early reporting, capping off a remarkable political comeback from her uncomfortably narrow first reelection win in 2022.
Hochul racked up huge margins in New York City and held her ground in the suburbs and upstate to turn aside the challenge from Blakeman, the Nassau County executive who had needed to run the table outside the five boroughs.
It was always going to be an extremely heavy lift to beat a well known and fairly popular Democrat in deep-blue New York, especially for a candidate like Blakeman, who is not particularly well known outside his political home turf on Long Island.
But Blakeman’s chances of winning were made much worse by a powerful Democratic midterms blue wave driven by voter anger over Trump’s unpopular policies including the war with Iran and his trade war tariffs, especially the ones targeting neighboring Canada.
Despite the powerful political tail winds boosting Hochul, the victory was a political redemption...